Our sugarcane is greener than your corn: Brazil takes on US biofuel industry - The Ecologist

Despite a poor harvest last year, Brazil’s ethanol industry is gearing up for expansion with a series of consolidations involving big companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and Petrobras showing it means business. Ethanol, along with other biofuels, was once hailed as the green fuel of the future, but since fell from grace as it was linked to deforestation and air pollution from the harvesting process. An Ecologist investigation also linked it to the displacement of indigenous communities . An Institute for European Enviroment Policy study last year claimed that biofuels could create an extra 56 million tonnes of CO2 per year due mostly to deforestation worldwide. In Brazil, 90 per cent of the country’s new cars can run on either gasoline or ethanol, with both or a blend being offered at petrol stations. This has long been the case with ethanol being offered as a fuel choice ...